HSBC is to axe 850 British IT jobs as it embarks on a three-year restructuring plan that will eliminate 8000 positions at the UK arm of the global bank.
The bank will be handing out P45s to IT employees in London, Sheffield, Leeds and London today, according to Bloomberg.
About 600 of the job losses will be sustained at the bank's IT outpost in Sheffield, with work shifting to offshore centres in India, China, and Poland.
The 8000 UK jobs under threat are part of a mammoth restructuring plan aimed at eliminating 50,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to cut the bank's expenses by $5 billion per annum by 2017.
Up to twelve percent of the bank's branches globally will be closed as it emphasises a shift to more online and self-service channels. The bank has allocated a $1 billion spend in digital technologies over the next two years to reduce frontline and service roles, while reducing its branch square footage by 20% in seven key markets.
A large part of the planned savings will stem for an overhaul of IT, moving more applications to the cloud and shifting development to lower cost economies. China and India will get the lion's share of development work, moving from a 50% share to 75%, with an estimated saving of $525 million.
The bank expects to reap a total of over $1 billion in savings with the move to offshore locations and by eliminating 750 of its existing 6,700 applications, introducing agile methodolgies, buying in more packaged applications and consolidating hardware via a shift to the cloud. A further $0.5 billion will be found from supplier consolidation.